In 2017, Mussab Ali became the youngest person ever elected to the Jersey City school board.

Today, he is one of the first three Rutgers University students to be named Schwarzman Scholars. The prestigious global program is designed to help students develop their leadership skills while pursuing a master’s degree in global affairs at one of the top universities in China.

Ali, a Rutgers-Newark senior, will join Rutgers University-New Brunswick senior Nick Pellitta, and Haoyang Yu, a 2015 Rutgers-New Brunswick graduate, to study for a year at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The trio is already a standout group.

In addition to his role on the Jersey City school board, Ali is also a recipient of the elite Truman scholarship, which is awarded to students with exceptional leadership potential.

Yu, who holds a degree in computer engineering from Rutgers, leads a team at Goldman Sachs as a senior analyst in derivatives processing engineering.

Pellitta, who is majoring in both economics and political science, hopes to one day serve in public office and to improve the lives of people in New Jersey.

Ali, Pellitta and Yu are among 147 scholars selected from more than 2,800 applicants. The recipients come from 38 countries and 119 universities – with 40 percent originating from the United States, 20 percent from China and the remaining 40 percent from around the world.

The program, launched in 2016, was created by Blackstone Group Chairman and CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman. It provides full scholarships to prepare the next generation of business, political and civil society leaders to create change in the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.